Sharpen Images

Sharpen Images

Sharpening an image typically involves a high-pass filter to increase the contrast between bright and dark regions to better reveal features. The following kernel is an example of a high-pass filter used to sharpen an image. This is just one example; other filters may include more weighting for the center point.

The following example uses the CONVOL function and the above kernel to sharpen a photomicrograph of cultured endothelial cells (Image courtesy of Michael J. Davis, Ph.D., College of Medicine, Texas A&M University).

This example data is available in the examples/data directory of your IDL installation. The code shown below creates the following three images, each displayed in separate windows.